Hanoverians under General of cavalry Cuno Josua
von Bulow (link) crossed Elba on 25 of February on the ice. On 3rd of March they came
to Hagenaw & then turned north to cut Mecklenburg troops in the western
part of Mecklenburg from Schwerin fortress. On 5th of March de Lauer
Foot took Walsmuhlen on the right bank of the river Sude between Wittenburg
& Schwerin. Wendt Dragoons were at Parum on the road between Wittenburg
& Walsmuhlen. A company of captain Schulenburg from Belling Foot took a
bridge at Rodemuhlen to the south from Walsmuhlen. Bulow’s head-quarter was at
Gammelin. Schlutter & St. Laurent Cavalry were between Wittenburg &
Rodemuhlen.

Meanwhile Mecklenburg general-major Curt
Christoph von Schwerin gathered his troops at Wittenburg (Tilly & Valinsky
Foot, Buggenhagen Landmiliz, 2 coys of Kahlden, Leibregiment zu Pferde, Lilienstreng
Dragoons). He got an order from Hertzog Carl Leopold not to open the fire &
show the resistance only in a case of a direct Hanoverian attack. In the
evening of 5th of March Schwerin decided to march to Schwerin. Soon Mecklenburg
troops arrived in Parum, where Wendt Dragoons stayed. The most of the regiment
escaped but some officers were captured. Schwerin soon ordered to release them.
He wrote in his relation that he could easily destroy & capture the whole
Wendt’s regiment, but he had the order from his duke to avoid any hostilities
with Hanoverians.

Then Mecklenburg troops continued its night
march to Walsmuhlen. The Tilly’s regiment (Russian Jaroslaw Foot) was in
vanguard. When it came to Walsmuhlen, it realized that the bridge was broken
& de Lauer Foot took positions on the other bank of Sude river. Schwerin
wrote that Hanoverians first opened the fire & killed one NCO & 4
soldiers of Tilly’s regiment. He decided to attack the enemy to open the road
to Schwerin fortress. Russian grenadiers crossed the river on the ice under
cover of two regimental pieces. Their attack was successful, de Lauer regiment
lost about 120 men (incl. colonel, lieutenant-colonel & major – see details
at the left) & 2 colours. Its remnants retreated to Rodemuhlen. Russians lost one
captain & 25 other ranks killed. Number of wounded is unknown. But later 15
wounded soldiers died.

Mecklenburg troops quickly repaired the bridge
& started the crossing. First was infantry, then Leibregiment zu Pferde,
then a train. Lilienstreng Dragoon covered the march. When Leibregiment crossed
the bridge, it was attacked by Wendt Dragoons. Colonel Welling company suffered
the most, some troopers were captured. Schwerin himself led the counter-attack
& repelled Hanoverians.

Meanwhile Bulow with 4 squadrons (Schlutter &
St. Laurent Cavalry) marched to Rodemuhlen, where he met Wendt Dragoons. Then
they crossed Sude river & marched north to Walsmuhlen. By that moment Mecklenburg
troops had completed the crossing & took positions in the field to S-E from
Walsmuhlen. Hanoverian attack was repelled by Valinsky Foot’s fire. It shoot 5
valleys, incl. 2 of case-shot. Two Valinsky’s regimental pieces also made 10
shots. Then Hanoverian cavalry had a charge with Lilienstreng Dragoon & Leibregiment
& heavily suffered them. Bulow decided not to repeat an attack of
Mecklenburg infantry & retreated to the south. Mecklenburg troops continued
their march to Schwerin & arrived there the same day.

Hanoverian losses in the actions at Walsmuhlen
were about 220-230 killed & wounded & 2 colours. Mecklenburg troops
lost about 100 men, half of them were Russians. Evidently there were also some
minor skirmishes in Sude river area, because losses of Hanoverian Bulow Cavalry
& Belling Foot & Mecklenburg Zulow Foot are mentioned, but they didn’t
participate in the actions at Walsmuhlen.

P.S. Many thanks to Oleg Sholin for his assistance in the preparation of the post.

The paint by Johann Mock presents an award ceremony of the Order of the Garter to Kurfurst Johann Georg IV of Saxony in 1693. There were two corps of guards at that time in Saxony: Trabanten Leibgarde zu Fuss & Trabanten Leibgarde zu Ross. Both of them are presenting on the paint. Foot Guards are at the left door in red-blue. That time they numbered 26 men: 2 Rittmeisters & 24 Trabantens. They were divided into 2 parts/"changes" which held 9 posts inside the kurfurst's castle in Dresden (1-2 men per a post). Mounted Guards (in red with blue & gold - see illustration from Friedrich W. Die Uniformen der Kurfurstlich Sachsischen Armee 1683-1763) are at the right. They composed of 2 companies since April of 1693:

пятница, 13 июня 2014 г.

Allied Dutch & Prussian troops under Dutch Field-Marshal Walrad of Nassau-Saarbrucken approached to Kaiserwerth on 15 of April before the official opening of the hostilities between France & Holland. They opened siege works on 18 of April. French garrison under marquis
de Blainville was of 6 battalions according to Pelet. French BO in the "FeldzugedesPrinzenEugenSavoyen" (B. 4, S. 735) presents the following troops: Royal (3), LaChatre (1), Artois (1), Agenois (1). At the same there are 11 battalions on the page 526 of the same work.

среда, 11 июня 2014 г.

I mentioned in the previous post that Reichshofrat's verdict about re-establishment in Mecklenburg was issued in October of 1717. The right of execution was given to the two old garants of Low Saxon Circle, Brunswick-Calenberg (Hannover) & Brunswick-Wolthenbuttel. That time there were about 30,000 of Russian soldiers in Pomerania, so nobody insisted on the implementation of the Reich's verdict. In winter of 1718-19 Russian troops left Pomerania & Poland, & it was a very bad news for Carl Leopold of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Brunswick-Calenberg & Brunswick-Wolthenbuttel immediately raised a so-called "Reichs-Execution-Corps" of 7,000 of foot & 2,000 of cavalry with 6 cannons. The commander was Brunswick-Calenberg's General der Cavallerie Cuno Josua von Bulow.

воскресенье, 8 июня 2014 г.

In March of 1719 Mecklenburg was involved in a
short military conflict with Hannover. I found a couple of interesting
materials about it, & will place them here in the blog. I will start from a
list of Mecklenburg troops.

Carl Leopold of Mecklenburg-Schwerin succeeded
his brother Frederick William in 1713. He tried to establish absolutism in his
dukedom, but it resulted in a conflict with local estates. Duke repressed them
by force & even executed some of the leaders of resistance. His opponents
asked Emperor to protect their rights & imperial legislation. In October of
1717 Reichshofrat (Court Council of the Holy Roman Empire) issued a verdict that
the Duke would submit to all imperial decrees, return property confiscated from
the nobles, re-established old rights of the estates & cancel new taxes. The
right of execution was given to the Hannover & Brunswick-Wolthenbuttel.

The story with Russian regiments is very
interesting. Duke Carl Leopold was married in 1716 to Catherine, a niece of the
Peter the Great. Next year Russian Tzar agreed to provide 3,000 of Russian
soldiers in Mecklenburg army to support his new relative in the internal
conflict with local estates. They were Viatskiy & Yaroslavskiy Foot
regiments. That time Russian foot regiments were of 8 fusilier coys only, their
grenadier coys since 1708 were detached to form converged grenadier regiments.
Grenadiers of Viatskiy & Yaroslavskiy regiments were in Campenhausen Grenadiers,
which was in Baltic provinces in 1717. So, two grenadier companies were taken
from Lacy Grenadiers which was in Pomerania that time. Finally Viatskiy &
Yaroslavskiy regiments entered Mecklenburg service in April 1717 of one
grenadier & 8 fusilier coys each (ab. 1,500 each). Russian officers were
mostly from gentry. That time they kept lifelong military service to the Tzar. But
when they entered Mecklenburg service, they realized that they could easily get
retirement & officially return home in their estates. So, many Russian
officers asked Karl Leopold to retire in 1717-19 & were replaced by German
officers.

About the blog

This blog is dedicated to Russian military history (wars, organization, uniforms, colors, weapons) & related topics (enemies & allies - their organisation, uniforms, etc). Among my favorite topics also are Polish-Lithuanian state & army, Ottoman army & Polish Succession war 1733-35.
For personal contacts you can use Comments to my posts or e-mail me at:
gromoboy
at
mail.ru